Tony Iommi
Anthony Frank "Tony" Iommi (born 19 February 1948) is an English guitarist, songwriter and producer. Best known as lead guitarist and founding member of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, he has been the band's sole continual member and primary composer. While working in a factory as a teenager, Iommi lost the tips of two of his fingers in an accident, an event which crucially affected his playing style. Iommi briefly left Black Sabbath (then known as 'Earth') in 1968 to join Jethro Tull, after which he returned to Black Sabbath. In 2000, he released his first solo album Iommi, followed by 2005's Fused, which featured his former bandmate Glenn Hughes. After releasing Fused, he joined Heaven & Hell, which disbanded after Ronnie James Dio's death in 2010. Iommi is widely considered as the god-father of heavy metal and one of the greatest and most influential rock guitarists of all time. A prolific riff-maker, he was ranked number 25 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". In 2011, he published his autobiography, entitled Iron Man: My Journey through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath. Early life Anthony Frank Iommi was born in Birmingham, the only child of Anthony Frank and Sylvia Maria Iommi (née Velenti). His mother's family were vineyard owners in Italy. The family were Catholic but rarely attended mass. The family home in the Park Lane area of Aston also housed a shop which was a popular meeting place in the neighbourhood. The family living room doubled as the shop's stockroom. His mother ran the shop while his father was a carpenter by trade. Born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, he attended Birchfield Road School, where future bandmate Ozzy Osbourne was also a student one year behind him. At age 8 or 9, Iommi fell and badly cut his upper lip as another boy chased him. As a result he gained the nickname "Scarface" which caused him to become self-conscious of the scar, and he eventually grew his trademark mustache as a means of covering it. At approximately age ten he began working out and learned judo, karate, and later boxing as a means of protecting himself from the local gangs who congregated in his neighbourhood. He became so good at boxing that he envisioned a future as a bouncer in a nightclub, thus avoiding a career in a boring factory job. Iommi initially wanted to play the drums, but due to the excessive noise they produce he chose the guitar instead as a teenager, after being inspired by the likes of Hank Marvin and The Shadows. He has always played guitar left-handed.http://coreymoraesart.blogspot.ca/2011/01/tony-iommis-fingertips.html After completing school, Iommi worked briefly as a plumber and later in a factory manufacturing rings. He states that at one point he worked in a music store but quit after being falsely accused of stealing. In an industrial accident at the age of 17 on his last day of work in a sheet metal factory, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand. After the injury Iommi considered abandoning the guitar entirely. However, his factory foreman played him a recording of famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, which encouraged him to continue as a musician. As Iommi would later write: My friend said, "Listen to this guy play," and I went, "No way! Listening to someone play the guitar is the very last thing I want to do right now!" But he kept insisting and he ended up playing the record for me. I told him I thought it was really good and then he said, "You know, the guy's only playing with two fingers on his fretboard hand because of an injury he sustained in a terrible fire." I was totally knocked back by this revelation and was so impressed by what I had just heard that I suddenly became inspired to start trying to play again.Iommi, Tony (1997). "Never Say Die: Overcoming overwhelming odds, and the right way to play 'Paranoid'." GuitarWorld, August, 1997. Inspired by Reinhardt's two-fingered guitar playing, Iommi decided to try playing guitar again, though the injury made it quite painful to do so. Although it was an option, Iommi never seriously considered switching hands and learning to play right-handed. In an interview with Guitar World magazine, he was asked if he was "ever tempted to switch to right-handed playing." Iommi responded: If I knew what I know now I probably would have switched. At the time I had already been playing two or three years, and it seemed like I had been playing a long time. I thought I’d never be able to change the way I played. The reality of the situation was that I hadn’t been playing very long at all, and I probably could have spent the same amount of time learning to play right handed. I did have a go at it, but I just didn’t have the patience. It seemed impossible to me. I decided to make do with what I had, and I made some plastic fingertips for myself. I just persevered with it. In his autobiography, he writes: Probably the easiest thing would have been to flip the guitar upside down and learn to play right-handed instead of left-handed. I wish I had in hindsight, but I thought, well, I've been playing for a few years already, it's going to take me another few years to learn it that way. That seemed like a very long time, so I was determined to keep playing left-handed. In any case, he decided to continue playing left-handed. To do so, he fitted homemade thimbles made from melted-down plastic bottles to his injured fingers to extend and protect them, which created two technical problems. Firstly, the thimbles prevented him from feeling the strings, causing a tendency to press down very hard with them. Secondly, he had difficulty bending strings, leading him to seek light-gauge guitar strings to make it easier to do so. However, Iommi recalls that such strings were not manufactured at the time, so he used banjo strings instead, until around 1970–71 when Picato Strings began making light-gauge guitar strings.Tony Iommi, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell (Boston, MA: DaCapo Press, 2011), 25–27. Furthermore, he used the injured fingers predominantly for fretting chords rather than single-note solos. In 1974, Iommi told Guitar Player magazine that the thimbles "helped (him) with his technique" because he had to use his pinky finger more than he had to before the accident.Michael Molenda, ed. Guitar Player Presents Guitar Heroes of the 70s (Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat Books, 2011), 131. Later, he also began tuning his guitar strings to lower pitches, sometimes as far as three semitones below standard guitar tuning (e.g., on "Children of the Grave," "Lord of this World," and "Into the Void," all on Master of Reality). Although Iommi states that the main purpose of doing so was to create a "bigger, heavier sound," slackening the strings makes it easier to bend them. Musical career Pre-Black Sabbath Iommi had played in several blues/rock bands, the earliest of which was the Rockin' Chevrolets from 1964 to 1965. The band had regular bookings and when they were offered work in Germany, Iommi decided to leave his factory job to take up the opportunity. From 1966 to 1967 Iommi played in a band named The Rest. It was in The Rest that Iommi first met future-Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, who performed drums and vocals in the band. From January 1968 until July 1968 Iommi was guitarist in Mythology, with Ward joining a month later in mid-February. In May 1968 police raided the group's practice flat and found cannabis resin, which resulted in fines for the band members. Most significantly, the incident made it quite difficult for the band to secure future bookings as most club owners avoided bands they viewed as drug users. Mythology subsequently split up after a gig in Silloth on 13 July 1968. In August 1968 at the same time as the break-up of Mythology, another Birmingham band called Rare Breed also broke up. Rare Breed vocalist John "Ozzy" Osbourne joined with Iommi and Ward after the duo responded to an advert in a local music shop proclaiming "Ozzy Zig Needs Gig – has own PA". Requiring a bassist, Osbourne mentioned his former Rare Breed bandmate Geezer Butler, who was subsequently hired along with slide guitarist Jimmy Phillips and saxophonist Alan "Aker" Clarke. The six-piece band were named the Polka Tulk Blues Band. After just two gigs (the last of which was at the Banklands Youth Club in Workington), Phillips and Clarke were dismissed from the band, which soon after shortened its name to Polka Tulk. Earth and Jethro Tull Iommi, Butler, Ward and Osbourne renamed the band Earth in September 1968. They carried on under this moniker until December 1968 when Iommi briefly departed to join Jethro Tull. However after only one performance (an appearance on "The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus" in which the band mimed "A Song for Jeffrey", which Ian Anderson sang live), Iommi was back with Earth once more. Iommi on his brief working relationship with Jethro Tull vocalist Ian Anderson: I learned quite a lot from him, I must say. I learned that you have got to work at it. You have to rehearse. When I came back and I got the band (Earth) back together, I made sure that everybody was up early in the morning and rehearsing. I used to go and pick them up. I was the only one at the time that could drive. I used to have to drive the bloody van and get them up at quarter to nine every morning; which was, believe me, early for us then. I said to them, "This is how we have got to do it because this is how Jethro Tull did it." They had a schedule and they knew that they were going to work from this time till that time. I tried that with our band and we got into doing it. It worked. Instead of just strolling in at any hour, it made it more like we were saying, "Let’s do it!" Black Sabbath In August 1969, after being confused with another group named Earth (who had minor success in England), the group renamed themselves Black Sabbath. His aforementioned factory accident affected the Black Sabbath sound later on, as by 1970 Iommi had detuned his guitar from E to E♭ (a minor second down), and from 1971's Master of Reality album, had detuned it further to D♭ (a minor third down), to ease the tension on his fingers. Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler did the same to match Iommi. Sabbath were among the first bands to detune, and the technique became a mainstay of heavy metal music. Iommi combined blues-like guitar solos and dark, minor-key riffing with a revolutionary high-gain, heavily distorted tone with his use of a modified treble-boosting effect-pedal and a Gibson SG. By the 1970s, incessant drug usage, managerial problems and constant touring had taken its toll on the band and Ozzy Osbourne was fired in 1979. Osbourne was replaced with Ronnie James Dio, the former vocalist for Rainbow. With Dio, Black Sabbath produced Heaven and Hell, prior to replacing Bill Ward with Vinny Appice. With Iommi and Geezer Butler the only original members, this line-up produced Mob Rules. During the '80s and '90s Iommi rebuilt the band with many line-up changes with vocalists including Ian Gillan (formerly of Deep Purple), Glenn Hughes, Tony Martin and Ray Gillen. After Ian Gillan departed the band in 1984 Iommi recorded his first solo album, entitled Seventh Star. The album featured Glenn Hughes (formerly of Deep Purple) on vocals, but due to label pressures, it was billed as a release by "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi." In 1992 Iommi appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, playing four songs with the remaining members of Queen and other guest artists. In the following year Iommi teamed up with fellow Black Country band Diamond Head and co-wrote the song "Starcrossed (Lovers in the Night)" for their 1993 Death and Progress album. At Ozzy's "farewell" concert at Costa Mesa in 1992, Dio refused to perform and abruptly left the band. As a result Rob Halford was recruited to perform as the vocalist for two gigs (Halford also sang at one of the dates on the 2004 Ozzfest tour, when Ozzy couldn't perform due to bronchitis). Following Osbourne's solo set, the show concluded with Ozzy bringing out the other members of the original Black Sabbath line-up for a 4-song reunion. Black Sabbath went on to record two further albums with Tony Martin before the original line-up reunited as a touring band in 1997. While Bill Ward played at the two initial reunion shows at Birmingham NEC in December 1997, he was not present for the following two reunion tours, his second absence due to a heart attack. Ward was replaced by Mike Bordin and then Vinny Appice. On 11 November 2011, the original band members announced that they were reuniting and recording a new album. The new album, 13, was released in June 2013. Solo career In 2000, Iommi released his first proper solo album, titled Iommi. The album featured several guest vocalists including Ian Astbury, Skin, Henry Rollins, Serj Tankian, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, Phil Anselmo, Peter Steele and Ozzy Osbourne. In late 2004 Iommi's second solo album was released, entitled The 1996 DEP Sessions. This album was originally recorded in 1996 but was never officially released. However, a copy with a drum track by Dave Holland was available as a bootleg called Eighth Star. Glenn Hughes performed vocals on the album and he furthered his collaboration with Hughes with the release of his third solo album, Fused. Released on 12 July 2005, John Mellencamp drummer Kenny Aronoff completed the trio on the album. Iommi has signed with Mike Fleiss's movie production company Next Films to score a series of horror films entitled Black Sabbath. Since 1989 Tony Iommi was involved in the Rock Aid Armenia project. In October 2009 Iommi and his colleague Ian Gillan were awarded the Orders of Honor – Armenia's highest order, which were delivered to them by the Prime Minister of Armenia for their help after the Spitak earthquake.Tony Iommi received Armenian Order Of Honour in October 2009 They formed the supergroup WhoCares and recorded a single called "Out of my Mind", which was released 6 May 2011 for the benefit of the music school to be built in Gyumri, Armenia. In January 2012, when Iommi was announced to have early-stage lymphoma, Armenian Prime Minister sent a letter of support: "We know your spirit is strong as ever, and we do believe the genius of your inspiration that guides you through the work on the new Black Sabbath album will transform into a boost of strength and energy that you need now, when things look tough".Armenian PM sends a letter to Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. 19.01.12 Heaven & Hell ]] In October 2006 it was reported that Iommi would tour with Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward again, but under the moniker Heaven & Hell. Later it was announced that Ward had decided not to participate and Vinny Appice was hired as his replacement. Rhino Records released "The Dio Years" (under the 'Black Sabbath' moniker) album on 3 April 2007. The album showcased older tracks with Dio and also included three brand new songs recorded with Dio and Appice. The band started an American tour in April 2007 with Megadeth and Down as opening acts. The tour finished in November in England with the prospect of an album to follow in 2008. During this period the band's show at the New York Radio City Music Hall was released as both a live DVD and CD with a vinyl release in the UK in 2008. During the summer of 2008 the band embarked on the Metal Masters Tour along with Judas Priest, Motörhead and Testament. The band's first and only studio album, The Devil You Know, was released on 28 April 2009. In November 2008 Iommi had a star revealed on the Birmingham Walk of Stars. Dio passed away due to stomach cancer in May 2010 and on 14 June 2010, Iommi announced that Heaven & Hell would perform a one-off tribute to Ronnie James Dio at the High Voltage Festival, London on 24 July 2010. This was the band's last performance under the name. Eurovision Song Contest Iommi wrote the song "Lonely Planet" which was sung by Gor Sujyan for Armenia in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. Personal life Iommi purchased his first house in Stafford, England, in 1972. He also purchased the property next door for his parents. Iommi has been married four times. *In the early 1970s Iommi married Susan Snowden, who was related to British Royal photographer Lord Snowdon. Iommi was introduced to Snowden by Black Sabbath's then-manager Patrick Meehan. The song "Fluff", an Iommi instrumental composition later released on the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album, was played as Snowden walked down the aisle. Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham served as Iommi's best man for the ceremony. This marriage lasted for some eight years, and Iommi said in a 1991 Guitar World interview that the troubled recording and mixing of Black Sabbath's 1976 album Technical Ecstasy caused the end of his marriage. *Iommi married an American model named Melinda in 1980. They had a daughter, Toni-Marie Iommi, in 1983, who was the vocalist for the now-defunct band LunarMile. Iommi divorced Melinda in the mid-1980s. When Toni-Marie was 12 years old, Iommi won custody of her after she was placed in foster care. Toni-Marie has described her early childhood with a mentally unbalanced mother as difficult but says that her father finally "saved her". She has stated that with her father she was able to regain her trust in other people. Mikko "Linde" Lindström, guitarist with Finnish band HIM became engaged to Toni-Marie in August 2010. *In 1986-7 Iommi met an Englishwoman named Valery, and after a six-year relationship they married. She had a son from a previous relationship named Jay. They divorced in the late 90s. Iommi confirmed in the same Guitar World interview referenced above (a co-interview with Metallica's James Hetfield) that he has a son. He told Hetfield regarding the band's so-called "Black Album," that "my son gave me a copy of your latest album..." *In 2005, Iommi married Maria Sjöholm, formerly vocalist for Swedish heavy metal band Drain STH. They met around 1998, when Tony was working on music for Drain STH. After a year of talking on the phone, in 1999, Maria relocated to England and moved into Tony's home. On 19 August 2005, without telling anyone, Maria and Tony were wed at the Sunset Marquis hotel, with only one witness present. On page 312 of his book, Tony calls the low-key wedding the "Best thing I ever did!" During the mid-1980s Iommi was briefly engaged to rock musician Lita Ford. He co-produced her album The Bride Wore Black, which to date remains unreleased. Ford said in a 1989 Kerrang! interview that "there's a certain amount of bad blood between Tony and I" due to her breaking off the engagement. On 19 November 2013, Iommi received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts degree from Coventry University. The honorary degree came "in recognition of his contribution to the world of popular music", and recognised "his role as one of the founding fathers of heavy metal music and his status as one of the industry's most influential figures", the university said. Illness In early 2012, Iommi was diagnosed with early stages of lymphoma, for which he has undergone successful treatment as of January 2013. Black Sabbath's 2013 tour dates have been arranged so that Iommi is free to return to the UK once every six weeks to have an antibody administered. On Friday, 3 January 2014 in a New Year message, Iommi announced that he will be finishing his regular treatment sometime in the year.Rock News : Tony Iommi To Finish Regular Cancer Treatment Legacy and influence in 1978.]] Tony Iommi is widely considered to be one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time. In 2005, Metal Hammer magazine ranked him number 1 on the poll of the "Riff Lords", praising his "highly distinctive style of fretsmanship that's economical yet crushingly effective". In 2007, Classic Rock magazine ranked him number 6 on their list of the "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 25 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Joel McIver ranked him the 6th greatest metal guitarist of all time. In 2012, readers of Guitar World ranked Iommi the 7th-greatest rock guitarist of all time. Editors of the same magazine ranked him the greatest heavy metal guitarist of all time. Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull has said: "Tony managed to turn his physical impairment around into something that makes him one of the guitar legends – if not for his dexterity of playing but at least for the fact that his contribution to rock music is a unique one". Gene Simmons of Kiss regards him as "the man who came up with the riffs that launched an army of guitar players"Interview taken from the TV program Gene Simmons' Rock School, 2005 and Ronnie James Dio as "the ultimate riff master".Ian Christe, Sound of the Beast, HarperCollins, 2010, p.342 Furthermore, Iommi is recognised by many as the main creator of heavy metal music. Brian May of Queen considers him "the true father of heavy metal", Eddie Van Halen states that "without Tony, heavy metal wouldn't exist. He is the creator of heavy!" and James Hetfield of Metallica, who was profoundly influenced by Iommi, defines him "The king of the heavy riff". Rob Halford, vocalist for Judas Priest, when filling in for Ozzy Osbourne during an August 2004 concert in Philadelphia, introduced Iommi to the audience as "The man who invented the heavy metal riff". Michael Amott of Carcass and Arch Enemy considers Iommi his "guitar hero" and the world's greatest guitarist "because he invented the heavy tone and evil riff". According to Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe, "Iommi is the reason heavy metal exists". He has been credited as the forerunner of other styles: Martin Popoff defines him "the godfather of stoner rock";CMJ New Music Monthly, April 2001, Num. 92, p.85 Jeff Kitts and Brad Tolinski of Guitar World assert that "grunge, goth, thrash, industrial, death, doom... whatever. None of it would exist without Tony Iommi".Jeff Kitts, Brad Tolinski, Guitar World Presents the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time!, Hal Leonard Corporation, 2002, p.8 According to the Hawaii Public Radio: "it is hard to imagine Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains without Black Sabbath, and without Tony Iommi. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and essentially every metal band can be traced to the musical framework found in Iommi compositions". Many notable musicians count Iommi as a major influence on their own playing; some of them include Jeff Hanneman (Slayer), Dimebag Darrell (Pantera),Bob Gulla, Guitar Gods: The 25 Players who Made Rock History, ABC-CLIO, 2009, p.8 Slash (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine),Jon Wiederhorn, Katherine Turman, Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal, HarperCollins, 2013 Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), and Nick Oliveri (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age). Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains was strongly influenced by Iommi's dark bendings, which he uses often. Andy LaRocque of King Diamond said that the clean guitar part of "Sleepless Nights" from the Conspiracy album is inspired by Iommi's playing on Never Say Die!. Equipment Iommi's deep and heavy sound was partly born out of necessity—his "revolutionary signature sound" being the result of the accident and the subsequent downtuning by three semitones. He said that his "extreme volume" was likewise necessary, "because we were fed up with people talking over us while we were playing." Discography Solo *''Iommi'' (2000) *''The 1996 DEP Sessions'' (2004) *''Fused'' (2005) with Black Sabbath with Heaven & Hell *''Live from Radio City Music Hall'' (2007) *''The Devil You Know'' (2009) *''Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell'' (2010) Guest & other appearances *Various Artists – Heavy Metal Soundtrack (1981) *Various Artists – Rock Aid Armenia (1989) *Queen & Various Artists – The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (1992) *Diamond Head – Death and Progress (1993) *Ozzy Osbourne – Live & Loud (1993) *Cathedral – The Carnival Bizarre (1995) *Various Artists – Twang! – A Tribute to Hank Marvin & The Shadows (1996) *Ozzy Osbourne – The Ozzman Cometh (1997) *Necromandus – Orexis of Death (1999, recorded 1973) *Various Artists – Party at the Palace: The Queen’s Concerts, Buckingham Palace (2002) *Ian Gillan – Gillan's Inn (2006) *Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi (WhoCares) – Ian Gillan & Tony Iommi: WhoCares (2012) References External links *Official Tony Iommi web site Category:English musicians Category:English guitarists Category:Guitarists